Determined to fight the images of rebel fighters and malnourished children most commonly associated with her homeland, Garang launched this multicultural event to showcase fashion designers, models, drummers, dancers, singers, artists and rappers from across the country.

The United Nations provided air transportation to the capital for many of the festival participants, while the intergovernmental organization's education, science and culture subdivision, UNESCO, served as a sponsor.

“South Sudan has been at war for a very long time,” said Ellen Lekka, a culture specialist at Unesco who also spoke with The New York Times.

“Traditions that go from generation to generation might have been lost in the struggle for survival and migration.”

As The New York Times reports:

“We have a flag,” said Zacharia Diing Akol, director of training at the Sudd Institute, an independent research organization.

“We have a name for the country. We have a national anthem, symbolic items of national unity. But you have to go beyond that.”

With every tiny step, the country inches closer.

Last year, actors from the South Sudan Theater Company represented the country at the World Shakespeare Festival in London, performing “Cymbeline” in Juba Arabic.

In July, the president named the country’s soccer team the Bright Star as it beat a team of players from the diaspora 3-2 at the Juba soccer stadium.

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